St. Petersburg and Romanov Dynasty

On the Romanov royal linage:

Mikhail Romanov was chosen to be a Tzar in 1613. His greatest legacy is his son, Alexis, who succeeded him and modernized the state.
Peter the Great ( Peter I ) - (1672 -1725) who transformed St. Petersburg into a lavish capital of the world.
Peter was Alexis’ youngest son and the child of his second wife, neither of which promised great things. Tsar Alexis also had three children by his first wife: Feodor, an invalid; Sophia; and Ivan, a semi-imbecile. When Alexis died in 1676 Feodor became Tsar, but his poor constitution brought an early death in 1682. The family of Peter's mother succeeded in having him chosen over Ivan to be Tsar, and the ten year-old boy was brought from his childhood home at the country estate of Kolomenskoe to the Kremlin. No sooner was he established, however, than the Ivan's family struck back. Gaining the support of the Kremlin Guard, they launched a coup d'etat, and Peter was forced to endure the horrible sight of his supporters and family members being thrown from the top of the grand Red Stair of the Faceted Palace onto the raised pikes of the Guard. The outcome of the coup was a joint Tsar-ship, with both Peter and Ivan placed under the regency of Ivan's elder and not exactly impartial sister Sophia. Peter had not enjoyed his stay in Moscow, a city he would dislike for the rest of his life.
After Ivan died, Peter was in sole possession of the throne. Rather than taking up residence and rule in Moscow, he embarked on a Grand Tour of Europe. He spent about two years there, not only meeting monarchs but also traveling incognito and even working as a ship's carpenter in Holland. He amassed considerable knowledge of western European industrial techniques and state administration, and became determined to modernize the Russian state and society.
One of the Peter's main goals was to regain access to the Baltic Sea and Baltic trade. In 1700 he started the Northern War with Sweden, which lasted for 21 years. In the course of the war St. Petersburgs was founded (1703) in the Neva River delta. At the end of the war Russia was victorious and conquered the vast lands on the Baltic coast. Russia gained access to European trade and St. Petersburg became her major sea port.
In November 1724, Peter dived into the cold northern ocean to assist in a ship rescue. It led to his illness and death. Peter died without naming someone to succeed him. There was no obvious choice either, as Peter had been married twice. His first wife, Evdokia was forced on him by his mother and he had had her sent to a convent. He later married a woman named Catherine, who he also made Empress and so many felt that Peter the Great meant for her to succeed him. However, Peter the Great also had a son by Evdokia named Alexis. Alexis did not support Peter the Great and when Alexis had a son, named Peter, Peter the Great told Alexis that he must support him. Alexis did not and eventually Peter the Great had him killed (Alexis was the first inmate of a political jail in the Peter and Paul fortress.) Also both Peter the Great and his former co-tsar Ivan V had daughters who could have possibly ruled.
This resulted in a quick succession of rulers, Catherine I , Peter's second wife, ruled for less than two years, then Peter II ruled from 1727-1730. He was followed by Anna I, who ruled from 1730-1740 and Anna II who ruled from 1740-1741. These rulers were followed by the relatively long reign of Elizabeth I, Peter the Great's daughter. She reigned from 1741-1762 and under her reign St. Petersburg became a beautiful city. She hired an Italian architect who built some of Russia's most well known buildings. These include the Catherine Palace and the fourth Winter Palace which is now the Hermitage museum. She was followed by Peter III, who lasted only a few months when, due to his unpopular actions and anti-Russian feelings, the military sponsored his wife in a coup that succeeded and Catherine the Great , Peter III's wife, began her rule of Russia.
Catherine the Great ( Catherine II ) - (1729 - 1796) The daughter of a German prince, she was born in today’s Poland (part of the Prussia Kingdom). She married Carl Peter Ulrich, Empress Elizabeth I’s nephew and heir to the throne. On Elizabeth’s death in 1761 Peter became Peter III. Peter III was not popular. In June 1762 Catherine was active in a coup against her husband Emperor Peter III. He was overthrown and soon killed "in an accident", while Catherine became Russia's autocratic ruler. Catherine the Great, being the outsider of the Romanov dynasty, wanted to establish strong links with earlier Russian history and the Romanov tzars. She commissioned an impressive monument to Peter the Great - the Bronze Horseman. Most experts agree that the St. Petersburg of Catherine the Great changed its appearance significantly and turned out to be one of the most impressive of European capitals. Catherine the Great died in 1796 at the age of 67, having lived longer than any other Romanov monarch.
Alexander I - (1777-1825) When Catherine died in 1796, the throne passed to her son, Paul I. The unpopular Paul I was murdered by his own courtiers in his palace (today’s Engineers’ Castle) in 1801, apparently with the approval of Alexander, Paul’s son. Alexander, succeeded him and became emperor Alexander I. Alexander defended Russia against Napoleon’s 600,000 army by drawing it into Russian countryside in the summer of 1812. In September, Napoleon entered a deserted Moscow, a few days later the city was burnt down around him. With winter coming, Napoleon ordered a retreat. Only one in 20 made as far as Poland. The Russians pursued them all the way to Paris. After Napoleon's return to France, Alexander I was a prominent leader in the European coalition against Napoleon. In 1815, after Napoleon's defeat, he helped form the Holy Alliance of Austria, Russia and Prussia, the goals of which were to reestablish conservative thinking and institutions.
Nicholas I - Alexander died unexpectedly in 1825 without a clear heir. His youngest brother, Nicholas I, ascent to the throne and ruthlessly executed those favoring his reform-minded older brother, Constantine, who married a Pole and was living in Poland.
Alexander II (the Great Reformer ) - son of Nicholas I. After 7 attempt on his life, Alexander II was assassinated in 1881 in St. Petersburg by a terrorist bomb.
Alexander III - son of Alexander II , succeeded Alexander II.
Nicholas II - succeeded Alexander III in 1894. Nicholas II was defeated in Russo-Japanese war of 1904. Nicholas’ wife, empress Alexandra, was strongly influenced by the spiritualist Grigory Rasputin. In March 1917, Nicholas II abdicated, ending the 300 years of Romanov Dynasty.